


Those Three Little Words

by Oh_srsly_mhm



Series: I Bet You [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Gen, Humor, M/M, My First Work in This Fandom, POV First Person, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-07
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-08 02:51:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4287960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oh_srsly_mhm/pseuds/Oh_srsly_mhm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>College AU. For Tino Väinämöinen, going to college was certain to be a breeze. What he wasn't ready for were the insane students, a lovable snow white puppy, and an extremely frightening, tall, frightening, expressionless Swede. Oh, and did he mention frightening? Eventual Sufin / Sweden x Finland and many more Hetalia pairings.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

Three words. Just three words can flip your life upside down, and turn it completely around. I found out the hard way that sometimes, words speak just a bit louder than actions. This is the story of how those three little words, spoken by Berwald Oxenstierna, changed my life forever.

Oh! Perhaps I should introduce myself! My name is Tino Väinämöinen and during the time of this particular story, I was nineteen years old. I live in America, yet I don't have a single drop of American blood in me. My family moved from Finland when I was just five years old, so I don't have many memories of my homeland, and I probably speak better English than Finnish.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't begin with a dramatic opening, or with a life changing event. No, this story just opens with my acceptance into college - which I was no doubt thrilled about. Throughout elementary school, to middle school, and finally to high school, grades were always very important to me, and it had always been one of my goals to be accepted into a top notch college. When I received that diploma to my college of choice (Hetalia University), I couldn't have been happier! In the process of my loud and exaggerated victory dance around my small house, I broke one of my mother's glass trinkets sitting on the short coffee table in the sitting room (where I happened to be when I opened the letter), a dish or two (I had been eating at the time), and probably vexed all of our neighbors on the street due to the commotion, but at that moment, I couldn't care less. After receiving tight hugs from my younger sister and brother, a tearful embrace from my mother (and then a slap to the back of the head for breaking the ornament), and a proud clap to the shoulder from my father, realization hit me; was I really ready for this? I was barely nineteen; all this time, I had been so determined, so pushed to get accepted into the college of my dreams. I had thought I would've been ready to do this - but in reality, I was scared to death.

While the University was not that far away, I would still have to live on campus, which means that I would probably have to share a room with a roommate who I hadn't even met. That was a little bit terrifying. Would my roommate be a tall, scary guy who could intimidate someone with just a glare? And could I handle the work load? Would I be able to get through college and graduate?

However, I couldn't just throw away this opportunity! I had worked hard, and I wasn't going to throw it away due to the chance that I could have an unpleasant roommate. I found myself actually excited to start my time at Hetalia University in the fall. Soon, the cold spring soon turned into a toasty, cheerful summer, and before I knew it, autumn had come. And you know what comes along with the beginning of autumn? The beginning of a new school year! The time soon came where I packed up many of my belongings, gave embraces to my tearful family members, got in my trusty, light blue bug (which I had received for my high school graduation), and started the journey to Hetalia University that would ultimately change my life.


	2. New Guy Tino

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tino finds himself questioning why he ever wanted to go to Hetalia University

The University was located right in the center of New York City, and because I lived in Dover, Delaware, my trip roughly took around three and a half hours.

I'll skip out on all of the boring, unimportant registration forms that I had to fill out once I arrived at the college. Needless to say, at the end of the entire ordeal, I was exhausted and just wanted to find my room so that I could sleep. This scared me, for I was once again reminded that I would have to share a room with someone I had never met before. I received the key to my room, which was located in the northern hemisphere of the campus, and taking most of my belongings from my car, began the trudge to the place I would be residing for a while – dorm 143.

The adventure to my dorm seemed to be quite insane; there was the loud buzz of students' chatter coming from the numerous rooms, someone kept shouting, "Der spiste den sidste donut?!" with a seemingly Scandinavian accent, one student was busy bedazzling...his door, and I was forced to stand against the wall to avoid getting run over by a tall, albino student and a girl with long, brown hair chasing him. And wait...was that a frying pan in her hands? Shaking my head disbelievingly, I finally made it to my dorm and pulled out my key.

Opening the door slowly, I peeped inside, a bit frightened. The lights were already on, which indicated that my roommate was already here. Pulling the door a bit wider, I stepped inside and placed my bags near the door to take a look around. The dorm was nice enough, but at the time I was worried more about my roommate. Hearing rummaging from probably a bedroom, I picked my bags back up, and slowly made my way to the noise. Nearing the room where the rummaging was coming from, I knocked on the door softly. "Hello?"

The rummaging stopped and the door was pulled open. The boy who pulled open the door was just a bit taller than I, had slightly long brown hair, and kind green eyes. He smiled when he saw me, and immediately stuck out his hand. "I'm guessing you're my roommate! My name is Toris Laurinaitis."

Shaking his hand with a huge smile on my face, I quickly introduced myself immediately after. I was extremely excited with how this had worked out; Toris seemed like a really nice guy, and he would probably make a great roommate. Our friendship quickly escalated; I forgot my exhaustion almost immediately, and we spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking our bags and talking about ourselves and our families. Toris was from Philadelphia, and, like me, had wanted to study at Hetalia University from a very early age. As of right now, he was studying to become a surgeon. Him and two of his good childhood friends had all been accepted to the college, and were apparently five doors down.

"I'll have to introduce you to them soon. They're both very kind and pretty smart – Eduard is a computer genius and Raivis graduated high school two years early. It's pretty crazy that we were all accepted into the same college," Toris spoke while setting up his DVD player in his room.

"Speaking of crazy," I mentioned, while handing him a cord, "the students seem pretty crazy themselves. If I stayed out there even a bit longer, I probably would've witnessed someone get murdered by a frying pan!"

Toris laughed quietly as he finished connecting the plugs. "So I've heard. When I first got here, I saw someone trying to fit a grand piano into their room. I didn't hear about this near-murder though." He chuckled again. "I'm sure everyone here isn't insane like that, and that the excitement will disappear in a few days, with all of the work we'll receive from our classes."

"So girls and boys are allowed to share the same dorms? I saw a few girls in the same hall as us," I wondered aloud.

Toris shook his head. "The one thing that always confused me about this certain university was the fact that instead of separating girls and guys, they've separated the dorm halls into grades. I believe that the girl rooms are at the end of the hall, while the boys are at the other end. A bit strange, yes?" he asked me.

"Definitely," I said while nodding my head. I stood up and dusted off my pants. "Did we successfully connect the DVD player?"

He nodded and gave me a small smile. "I'm pretty sure we have. If we did do something wrong, I'll just have Eduard come by and take a look."

"Sounds good!" I replied. I was just going to suggest that we go out and get a quick bite to eat since it was getting late, when there was a sharp knock at the door. Exchanging a quick, confused look, me and Toris approached the door. Opening it, I realized that it was the boy who had been bedazzling his dorm room before.

"Like, hey boys!" he exclaimed. Apparently he had changed, for he now wore a white sweater and a short skirt that was a sickening shade of pink. He leaned against the doorframe and threw a quick wink and a sly smirk to both of us.

"H-hello," Toris sputtered. Glancing at him from the side, I could see that a faint blush adorned his cheekbones; I figured at the time that it was just from the heat coming from the room.

"So me and a few others are going to totally get some ice cream at the ice cream shop down a block or two away, and I was in charge of asking people, so you, like, wanna come?" the boy asked, only looking at Toris.

Toris finally tore his gaze away from the messenger to face me. "How does that sound, Tino?"

"Sounds fun to me!" I replied, nodding. The boy in the skirt told us to meet at the front of the University in five minutes, gave us a quick thumbs up, winked at Toris, and then ran off, presumably to another dorm. Not wanting to be late, we tugged our coats on, and then walked off in the direction of the meeting place. Once there, we noticed that there were a few others waiting around for the others. Toris immediately jogged up to two in particular; one was a tall blonde with glasses, and the other was a short boy, who seemed to be shivering due to the cold. These were the infamous Eduard von Bock and Raivis Galante that I had heard about only a few hours before. I introduced myself, and right after, the boy in the pink skirt came back and told us to, "Like, start walking in like, that direction."

The walk to the parlor was a pleasant one; both Eduard and Raivis seemed very kind and polite and were glad that Toris had gotten what Eduard called, "a satisfactory roommate". The boy in the pink skirt seemed to have an interest in Toris; once or twice he 'bumped' into him, and I heard him tell my new friend, "Dude, you're like, totally hot." I didn't hear what Toris had to say after that.

The ice cream parlor was very close indeed; we only walked for about five minutes until we reached our destination. The name of the parlor interested me the most; the bright words 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' stood out in the darkening, crisp, autumn evening. I rolled my eyes at the title, but my eye-rolling soon turned into an eye widening.

"Perkele!" I hissed.

"Is something wrong, Tino?" Raivis asked timidly.

Laughing in disbelief, I uttered, "Everything is fine, I just forgot to bring my wallet."

Getting out his own, Eduard said, "I could buy you one, it would be no problem."

This was certainly out of the question. I had just met Eduard, and I was certainly not going to have him pay for my ice cream, especially when the store was named "Big Gay Ice Cream Shop." Shaking my head, I replied, "Oh, no thank you! I'll get my money; I'll just be a minute or two!"

Toris tilted his head. "Do you want me to come with you? Do you know the way back?"

Again I shook my head. "No – I'll be fine! Don't eat too much without me!" And with that, I started a brisk jog back towards the university. Thankfully, the college was on the same street as the colorful ice cream shop, and I found myself in the freshman dorm hall in no time at all.

Apparently, the remaining students in the dorm who hadn't gone to get ice cream were having a limbo party, right there, in the middle of the hall. I'm not joking; two students held a pole and people were taking turns limboing while the rest of the students cheered them on. Complete with the music. The pole was set pretty low, and the only two contestants left were a girl with long, platinum blonde hair in a deep purple dress, and a loud, obnoxious boy in a leather bombing jacket. Unfortunately, I couldn't pass the limbo contest, because the sides of the hall were filled with people watching the two compete.

A boy with wild, blonde hair and bright blue eyes seemed to be head of this ordeal, so I approached him. "Excuse me?" I asked above the cheers and whistles from the crowd.

"Yeah? What's up?" he replied with a grin.

I recognized his voice as the same one who had been calling out about a donut earlier that day. "Can I get through? My room is on the other side of this whole event, and I can't get through," I pointed to the stuffed sides of the hall.

He seemed to laugh and shouted over the crowd, "Dude, if you want to get through, you got to limbo!"

I shook my head in disbelief. "What?"

He suddenly got everybody's attention by giving a shrill whistle that made me cover my ears. "Yo, we have a challenger!" The crowd seemed to grow even wilder, and I now understood.

"No! I just want to get through! I don't want to limbo!" Both contestants cleared the way and I suddenly found myself pushed to the front of the now, very low bar. I inwardly groaned as the headman of the limbo tournament started a cheer apparently for me, by shouting, "New Guy! New Guy! New Guy!" Soon the crowd was chanting the vacuous cheer.

Deciding to get this over with, I began approaching the bar, and by some power above, actually made it under. Standing back up, I was given hard slaps to the back, and loud bravos of "New Guy!" I smiled unwillingly and made my way to the back of the crowd, which parted like the Red Sea. At this point, I was out of breath and began to run through the corridor. However, before I could make to my room, the organizer called out to me, "New Guy! You should play again later! We're having a rematch at eleven tonight!"

Still jogging, I looked over my shoulder. "We'll see!" I called out, giggling. Before I could look forwards again, I literally ran into someone. I found myself on the floor, along with another person, who seemed busy picking up various boxes and papers that he must've been carrying at the time. I noticed that the door right next to mine was open, probably signifying two things: that he had been busy carrying something to his room, and that he was my next-door roommate. Great first impressions, Tino. Just brilliant.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! Are you okay? Here, let me help you!" I rambled as I felt an embarrassed flush spread over my face like wildfire. Standing back up, I held out a stack of papers I had picked up. "Here you go..." I exclaimed as I looked up.

The student I had run into was a huge, frightening man. He had short, light blonde hair, and he seemed to be glaring at me from above through his glasses. Right behind those glasses was a pair of eyes, which were a shade of bright, brilliant aqua that I didn't even think was possible.

"I'm so sorry!" Frightened to the bone, I basically shoved the papers into his arms, slipped through beside him, whipped out my key and opened my door in record time, throwing myself into my room, still terrified by him. Deciding that I didn't want to brave the scary dude, the limbo fest, and the gay ice cream shop again, I sent a quick text to Toris, telling him that I was just going to stay home for the night. After calling my family about my registration day, I got into my bed and tried not to think of the crazy college that I would call home for the next couple years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't worry! The plot will definitely pick up in the next chapter! As you can probably already tell, my stories will most likely be on the lighter side, however there will be some serious parts.
> 
> I try my best to get the closest translations, but unfortunately I'm not fluent in those languages, so I apologize if in any of my stories the translation is wrong. If you see a problem with any translation, let me know! I would greatly appreciate it!
> 
> Let me know what you think! Thanks so much for reading!


	3. We Meet (Again)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the bet makes its appearance.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the best night of sleep in the first night at my new dorm. I was continually woken up by loud limbo music throughout the night and had nightmares of having to continually limbo with that humungous crowd watching me.

I woke up somewhat late the next morning, since classes started the next day and I had nothing better to do. Walking into the kitchen, I discovered that Toris was already up and moving, for he had a fresh pot of coffee brewing, and bless his soul, it looked like he had saved enough for me. Exchanging good mornings, our talk soon changed to the topic of last night.

"We missed you last night. Apparently the owner is from Cuba and can make a pretty delicious vanilla ice cream," Toris murmured while sipping his coffee.

"I would've liked to come, things just got a bit overwhelming here," I replied while taking a sip of my own. "There was a huge limbo fest going on when I came back, and I was forced to myself when trying to get through the hall!"

He raised his eyebrows. "Oh, so are you the 'New Guy' that Mathias and everyone were referring to last night?"

I tilted my head at him, a bit confused. "Who's Mathias?"

Toris looked up at me. "He was the organizer of the limbo tournament yesterday night. I ran into him when coming back to the dorms."

Connecting the name to the face, I nodded. "Oh, so he's the wild-haired donut man."

Toris looked at me, puzzled. "Who?"

I waved at him, "Oh, no one. That was just how I remembered him until now." I added two sugar cubes to my coffee. "Speaking of names, did you happen to get the name of the boy in the pink skirt yesterday?" I asked him, smirking into my drink.

"I...I happened to. Yes. I did. His name is Feliks and he's from California. And...why does that matter?" Toris stammered.

"No reason." I replied, hiding my smile by taking a sip of the now too-sweetened coffee.

Clearing his throat, Toris got up and put his mug in the sink. "I might go out and tour the campus a bit more. Would you like to come?" he asked as he washed his cup.

Nodding my head, I was prepared to give a, "Certainly!" when I remembered the real reason I didn't want to leave my dorm last night. "No! I can't leave for at least another day or so!"

Toris turned to me. "Why not? I've already checked the hall; the next limbo contest isn't scheduled till Thursday, and since its Sunday, that's in four days."

I waved my hands at him while rambling. "No! You see, there's this big, scary guy who lives in the dorm right next to us! I accidentally rammed into him on the way to the room last night and I swear he looked like he was going to kill me! I can't go out there now!"

My roommate chuckled and tugged on his shoes. "No one is going to kill you Tino."

"You're right. He's probably waiting right outside my door to kidnap me and then-"

"Tino!" Toris suddenly was right in front of me and placed both hands on my shoulders. "You'll be fine! You apologized, right? You can do nothing else." Deciding that the conversation was over, he pulled on his other shoe and stood next to the door. "Are you coming?"

To be honest, I forgot about my scary neighbor almost immediately. Toris and I spent the rest of the day touring the very large campus and discovered that it had a humungous theater (the University was known for their plays), a cafeteria with so many different types of food it made my head spin, and numerous clubs and classes that I didn't even know existed. I had never heard of the 'How to become Awesome like Me' class, the 'Panda' club, or the 'Delicious Tomato' club, which only had two members.

After seeing a particularly quirky club I burst out laughing. "Hey Toris! You should join the '4 Months 2 Fab' Club!"

Toris turned to me with a strange and somewhat hurt look. "But...why? I believe this is the last day to sign up for other school activities, but what makes you think that I would ever want to join that?"

Oh, why had I said that in the first place?! Had I lost my only friend, my roommate over one stupid comment?! Desperate to win back his friendship, I uttered the words that changed my life.

"Because, I'll join whatever class you pick for me!"

A strange glint appeared in his eye at that moment. "Any class?"

I nodded wildly. "Any class!"

Seeming to be deep in thought, he responded, "Let's raise the stakes. If one of us drops out of our new class, they have to buy the other lunch for a whole week."

I pondered this for a moment. Seeing it as a fair bet, I agreed.

Nodding with the scary glint still in his eye, he turned back to the list of classes and clubs. He eyed it over for another minute or so, and finally turned to me. "I've got it." He placed his finger on the accursed paper. "Right here."

I tiptoed beside him and peeped up at the list. When my eyes finally landed on the class he had picked for me, my jaw dropped.

"Woodshop class?! Is there a particular reason why you chose that?" I asked him, completely perplexed.

He looked back at the paper with a faint smile on his face. "Oh, I don't know. I've just got a feeling that you will really despise it."

Toris had the face of an angel but the mind of the devil.

We signed up for our new after school activities, and soon after, we got some amazing Italian food from a restaurant located on the campus. The man who served our food was actually a student studying at the University, who apparently was very energetic, and was very enthusiastic about pasta. Just as we were about to retire to our dorm, we were stopped by a couple students.

"Hey, New Guy!"

Internally groaning, I turned around to find the limbo coordinator, and two other male students that I had never seen before. Both boys looked practically identical, except for the fact that one was a bit taller than the other, and had a peculiar cross hair pin clipped in his blonde hair.

Putting on a smile, I answered, "Um, hello! Feel free to call me Tino; 'New Guy' is a bit long."

He nodded. "Fair enough. Well Tino, I'm Mathias Køhler." Putting an arm around each of the boys standing next to him, he quirking his head in the shorter student's direction, and announced, "This here is Emil Stielsson," and pointing in the opposite way he continued, "And this is my bff, Lukas Bondevik!"

Emil looked like he could melt in the ground from embarrassment and Lukas looked like he couldn't care if the earth exploded in that very moment.

"While they both have different last names, they're half brothers! Emil took his mother's maiden name instead. Isn't that so cool?!" Mathias rattled on.

After I had introduced Toris to the two brothers, we continued for a while (which basically was all about Mathias telling us about his upcoming 'Bobbing for Apples' plans), until Lukas physically began dragging him away by his ear. Emil was half a step behind their heels, and they left the cafeteria without another word.

"Oh...they're a bunch of fun, aren't they?" Toris joked as he threw away his trash.

We made our way up the flight of stairs to where our dorm was located, and were in the process of rounding the corner in the hall until I quite literally bumped into someone.

I didn't even have to think who it was.

Toris took one look at the probably now pissed-off neighbor and sprinted down the hall. On the floor I looked up at the face I feared, and was rewarded with those hypnotizing sea-green eyes.

"I-I really have to stop doing that! Are you okay, sir? I'm so sorry!" I shakily stood up and offered him a hand.

Picking up his glasses, he took my hand, and standing at his full height, he wasn't as tall as I had depicted him to be.

"Are ya alright?"

Amazed that he actually wasn't yelling at me (and that he actually said something) I answered, "N-No! I'm perfectly fine!"

Que the awkward silence.

Not knowing much else to do, I said, "I think we're roommates! I-I live in dorm 143!"

He nodded. "142."

The awkward silence returned, and wanting to be on good terms with him, I stuck out my hand. "My name's Tino Väinämöinen. What's yours?"

It was at that moment that I saw his face soften, just a little bit. Not only his eyes, but his whole face looked kinder, and I realized that he actually looked quite handsome when he did that.

Woah. Where did that come from?

Lost in thought, I barely heard him utter his name. "Berwald Oxenstierna."

I was about to respond when a door in the hall opened, revealing a male student with impressive eyebrows and the same boisterous boy (still in the same bomber jacket) from the limbo tournament last evening.

"This is our fifth stop to McDonald's today! How many hamburgers can you eat?! " the student with the enormous eyebrows ranted.

"McDonalds isn't just a restaurant, Artie. McDonalds is a way of life!" the other responded passionately.

"You better pay me back for all the crap from there that I've bought you. Your stomach is a bottomless pit." Their arguing continued until they left the hall, and they still could be heard outside.

Snapping back to my thoughts, I stated, "Well, I should be heading back to my dorm. My roommate is probably expecting me."

Berwald nodded, and with a "G'bye," he passed by me and went in the same direction as the two students had not ten seconds later. I walked calmly to my room and once I opened the door, I was attacked my Toris.

"O viešpatie! How are you still alive?! Is that the roommate you were scared was going to kill you? Cause I can definitely see why now!"

Still a bit in shock myself, I said, "Yeah, that's Berwald Oxenstierna, our next door neighbor. And I really need to stop physically running into him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Third installment is up! Let me know what you think, and, as always, thank you so much for reading!


	4. Woodshop

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter title basically explains this part.

My new classes started the very next morning. One of these classes was woodship, which I wasn't looking forward to. In high school, I had to take it for an extracurricular class...and after the first day, my hands were covered in scrapes and filled with splinters.

Most of my first day actually went pretty smoothly. Many classes just included introductions of the professors and what we would be learning in that certain class.

Unfortunately, Toris wasn't in any of my classes, but I did see Lukas and 'Artie' (from last night) in one or two of my classes. However, I did see many familiar faces from the couple previous days near the freshman dorm hall; I would have to get their names soon.

The time soon came for woodshop, which seemed to be pretty small, depending on the minuscule classroom it took place in. When I walked in, only one person was in their seat; the teacher apparently hadn't come yet. The first person I noticed had silver white hair, and at the moment was nibbling on something that looked suspiciously like licorice. Widening my eyes, I realized that it was Emil from the night before.

Shooting a smile in Emil's direction, I sat down next to him. For a while, not a sound was heard, other than his tentative bites of licorice and both our breathing. Wanting to break the silence, I said,

"I'm Tino, I believe I met you yesterday at the food court!"

He paused, and looking at me, he murmured, "Yes, you did. I didn't get the chance to introduce myself properly because of Mathias. I'm Emil Stielsson."

I noticed that he had a peculiar accent; like Mathias' it sounded Scandinavian, but I would have to ask him about it some other time. We shook hands, and turned back towards the podium up on stage.

"Um, do you know when the professor will come?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea. I just took this class to escape the two dolts—"

At this moment, the door burst open, and expecting it to be the professor, we both turned around. However, it was probably the exact opposite.

"Look Lukas! It's your little bro! And New G—Tino!"

"—who apparently joined this class as well." Emile continued, burying his head in his hands, and muttering a quiet, "Ríða líf mitt."

I had no idea what he had just said, but I don't think that it was something that I should've repeated.

Lukas came and sat on the other side of him. In a monotone voice, he scolded, "You can't just eat licorice all day, bror. I brought you some tuna sandwiches—"

"I don't need your stupid fish sandwiches! I'm almost eighteen years old and I can take care of myself! I can eat licorice all day if I want to—"

"If you want to be overweight you can continue doing that. On the contrary, tuna is an extremely good source of selenium, niacin, vitamin B12, vitamin B6—"

"Will you just stop talking about your stupid vitamins and tell me what you are doing in this dorky class?" Emil asked coldly.

Before Lukas could reply, Mathias exclaimed, "I've always wanted to make a big wooden snowman—"

"So that it wouldn't melt in the spring." Lukas remarked dryly.

"So, I decided to take woodshop this semester so I can make one!" Mathias continued joyfully. "Lukas said that I would wreck the whole classroom, so he decided to sign up as well!"

Silence filled the classroom, until Emil broke it. "And woodshop...just had to be the exact same class that I took to escape from you two?!" I instinctively leaned away from him, for he looked absolutely livid.

Both Mathias and Lukas shrugged at the exact same time. "I need to keep an eye on you anyway," Lukas muttered.

"I keep telling you, you don't have to!"

"I'm the big brother, it's my job to."

"I can take care of myself!"

"You obviously can't. Who eats licorice for breakfast, lunch and dinner?"

"I do!"

"You need to be more like me, like your big brother."

"No!"

"Call me Big Brother."

"No!"

"Call me Big Brother."

"I said no!"

Deciding to stop the two brothers' fight, I yelled, "Does anyone know when the teacher is coming?!"

It worked, for both ceased their quarrel and looked at me. Lukas tilted his head, "That is a very good question. At the moment, it is 3:07, and our teacher hasn't come, which is a bit odd."

We waited for just a few minutes until the door opened once again. It was about ten minutes after three, and we were probably all thinking that it was the teacher, who would ramble something about how late he was, and how it would never happen again. However, the person walking through that door was the absolute last person I expected.

"Hey, Lukas, it's the 'Big Tall Scary Guy' from room 142!"

Berwald Oxenstierna walked stoically into the room, with that same glowering look on his face. Since Mathias had taken the seat next to Lukas, he took the remaining one on my right. Even though I was basically shivering internally, I wanted to welcome him, so I turned towards him and murmured a quiet, "Hi, Berwald."

He turned to me and gave me a quick nod, and grunted, which I couldn't really interpret, but I chose to believe that he was saying hello to me too.

"Is th' teacher here y't?" Even though Berwald spoke quietly, his voice seemed like a shout in the minute classroom.

I shook my head and Lukas said, "It looks like the teacher hasn't yet. I wonder if the teacher is actually going to show up."

"Maybe the teacher realized how dorky of a class he was teaching and decided to not show up."

"Emil, brother, maybe you should realize that you enrolled yourself in this so-called 'dorky class'."

"I just took it so that there would be no possible way that I wouldn't have to spend another hour with you and the Party Planner!"

"Hey! What's wrong with planning events with people?!" Mathias screeched.

It seemed that Mathias' exclamation didn't matter at all, for the two brothers continued to bicker about the class. I personally didn't really care for the class or what was taught in it; I was just enduring it so that I could get free lunch from Toris for a week.

Suddenly the quarrel stopped, and the awkward silence once again made its appearance. Distraught from it, I asked, "So, should we get a teacher and ask what to do?"

Mathias suddenly stood up and cried, "Hell no dude! Don't you know when to seize a good opportunity?!"

I tilted my head. "This is a good opportunity?"

He nodded like it was the most obvious thing in the entire world. "No teacher means no class. No class means no homework. No homework means extra free time. Extra free time means happy students."

I pondered this for a moment. "But couldn't we get in trouble for something? Like not telling the teachers? And what about our grades? We can't get any if our teacher never shows up!"

"I actually agree with Mathias. Even if it does get found out that there isn't a teacher here, we are still 'in class' and aren't 'fooling around'," Lukas stated. "If we don't get hurt, and don't ruin anything, we'll be fine."

"Helligt lort! Lukas actually agreed with me!" Mathias came and enveloped him in a humongous hug. "Have I ever told you that you're my favorite?"

"Yes," Lukas managed to say, while still being crushed in Mathias' hug. "Actually multiple times, idiot."

I realized that Berwald hadn't said anything since the moment he had walked into class, and turned towards him. "What do you think of the situation?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "There's n'thin I r'lly can do. It's a shame that we won't le'rn anythin' 'bout woodshop this ye'r."

He looked like he could've said more, but was interrupted. "So, what are we going to do this class? Bake cookies and have a bake sale while we play Pokémon?" Emil asked, still with a confused expression.

"You know, that's not a bad idea! Lukas and I can bake our famous cakes and we can sell them at my next bobbing for apples tournament!"

"You're such an idiot. I would be caught dead before baking dozens of cookies and brownies like Paula Deen—"

"It would still make us some big bucks!"

"Dream on, Mat."

The rest of the hour included Lukas, Mathias (and occasionally Emil) arguing about the unconfirmed bake sale, and if they would actually bring in Pokémon cards next time. Me and Berwald stayed silent, occasionally exchanging a word or two. Pretty soon, the clock struck four, and everyone was packing up and leaving. Emil was the first one out, followed by Lukas, who was followed by Mathias, which left me and Berwald in the class alone.

"Well...I should get back to my room to start on all of my homework," I replied.

He nodded. "I should too."

On the way back to the dorm hall, I asked him, "So tell me a bit about yourself!"

While he did shoot me a confused look, he responded, "I live 'n Wilmington 'n Del'w're—"

"Hey! I live in Delaware too! But not in Wilmington. I live in Dover." Realizing that I had totally just interrupted him, I apologized and asked him to continue. Berwald was an only child who lived with his mother and father (who were both entirely Swedish) in a house that was located by Brandywine Creek. He always owned cats growing up, but he'd always wanted to own a dog. He had heard about Hetalia University in high school, and instantly desired to go there.

As he talked more about himself, I found out that Berwald was actually a pretty nice guy. Sure, he looked like he was angry all the time, and sometimes it was hard to understand him, but once you got past that, he was a pretty kind and understanding person.

I was almost sad in a way when we reached our dorm rooms, although I don't exactly know why. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Berwald!"

"See ya tomorrow."

I closed the door to my room and turned around to see a discombobulated Toris eating mint ice cream from the carton while watching 'Big Bang Theory'. Once I stepped in, he looked at me. "Tino! I don't think I can go on with the '4 Months 2 Fab Club'!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why?"

"Because Feliks is the leader of the club and he was trYING TO MAKE ALL OF US WEAR SKIRTS! We're supposed to go shopping for 'fabulous' clothes tomorrow and its absolute torture!"

All this time, Toris had thrown the ice cream off his lap (which landed on the kitchen counter) and was furiously pacing around the room, ranting.

He stopped suddenly, and turned to me, with a smirk on his face. "But I can't wait to hear about your woodshop class! How was it?"

Now it was my turn to smirk. "Actually, it went great. The teacher didn't show up, and it looks like that class will just be free time."

If Toris hadn't seemed crazy before, he sure looked crazy now. "WHAT?!" He picked up the abandoned ice cream container and began eating out of it again. He finally collapsed on the couch. "This isn't fair...why do I get the worst club in the entire universe, while you get to sit for an hour twiddling your thumbs?!" Collecting himself, he stood up and stated, "I have homework to do. I'll see you a bit later." He then walked to his room, with the ice cream still under his arm.

All this time, I had been frozen. I had never seen Toris lose his cool like that before, and to be honest, I didn't think it was possible. After he shut his door, I started on my own homework.

After a few hours, my homework was completed and Toris had apologized to me several times about his outburst earlier. I had to reassure him every time that it was perfectly fine or else he wouldn't stop apologizing.

"I think I ate too much ice cream...I can't believe I ate the entire carton..." Toris managed, lounging once again on the couch. "But let me tell you, that 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' makes some darn good ice cream."

"I'll have to pick some up soon, I keep hearing good things about the ice cream there," I replied while making tea. "Maybe tomorrow, it's too late right now."

Toris nodded his head. "That sounds good. I'll probably join you."

After declining an offer to travel to a local sushi bar with a few other students, I went to bed, and fell asleep pondering what adventures were waiting for me tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay a new chapter!   
> I don't speak Danish or Icelandic, so if there is a problem with the translations, let me know! I tried to find the phrases from actual speakers and not Google translate, but I'm not sure if its right or not.
> 
> Also, I'm terribly sorry for Berwald/Sweden's way of speaking; this is my first time writing how I think he would speak.
> 
> Let me know how I'm doing! As always, thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Continued in the next chapter...


	5. Wait Berwald Isn't a Scary Giant?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Food fights, anyone?

"I told you, we are not doing a bake sale."

"But Luke! Don't you know how many people would buy your brownies? Plus, we would raise so much money I wouldn't even have to buy 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' sets with my own!"

"I will not work my ass off so that you can get free junk."

"But you're my best friend! Best friends help each other out!"

"Not me. Ask Emil to help."

"I already did! He told me he wouldn't!"

"Well I guess you're on your own."

"You won't even help make the cookie dough?!"

"I think I've made my point clear."

For the past half hour, both Mathias and Lukas had been arguing about their possible bake sale, which seemed positively hopeless for Mathias. Emil had been texting this entire time, while both Berwald and I stayed silent.

I had tried passing the time by working on my other homework, but the constant bickering distracted me so many times that I gave up. I was also surprised to receive two texts from Toris in just a short time period. The first read,

Delivered: 3:21 PM

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Feliks took us to Forever 21. Please get me out of here!

And another,

Delivered: 3:34

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Expect that free week of lunch soon. I don't think I can handle much more.

I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. Here I was, sitting and doing nothing, while Toris was in considerable distress. Before I could stop myself, I exclaimed, "I believe we should do something!"

I immediately caught all the attention from my fellow classmates. "But we are doing something!" cried Mathias. "I'm making plans for my bake sale…which I'll do alone," he added, shooting a dejected look in Lukas' direction.

I shook my head. "No! I mean…" I stopped, and then stood up. "We have all this wood here…I think we should create something!"

"You're…actually proposing that we work?" Emil asked disbelievingly.

He had a point there. "I know that we don't want to work, and would just rather use this class for free time…but we didn't join this class to do nothing. We joined this class to take woodshop." Okay, that was a complete lie. I joined so I could get free lunch for a week, and I already knew Emil had joined so that he wouldn't be stuck with his half-brother. "Plus, I believe it would be a good idea to create something anyway; that way if a teacher finds out we don't have a professor, we can say that we did something productive."

Someone, a very loud someone, actually agreed with me. "I agree with Tino!" shouted Mathias. "Now I can finally create my own, unmelting snowman!" He jumped over his desk and practically ran over to the pile of wood in the corner. "Let's start now!"

To my utter surprise, Berwald stood up out of his seat and without another word, walked to the pile of lumber and began taking out various pieces of wood. He then placed all of them on a work table, and then went back to grab diverse tools.

Lukas expressionlessly walked over to Mathias and began helping him pick out pieces of wood. It seemed like Mathias had absolutely no idea what he was doing, but Lukas looked as if he did.

Emil and I soon followed him. At the moment, I had no ideas of what to make, so I grabbed a random stack of wood and placed it on a work table. Emil seemed to be in the same boat as me.

"So…what do we do now?" he asked.

"You create something out of wood."

Great. It seemed as if the brothers were starting their argument again.

"I knew that! What do we make?"

"Whatever you want. You want a chessboard? Make it. You want a chair? Make it. You want a stupid unmeltable snowman? Make it."

"Hey!" cried Mathias, interrupting their argument once again. "Unmeltable snowmen are not stupid!"

"Says the idiot who set his head on fire a week ago." Lukas muttered.

"That was all Emil's fault and you know it!"

"You know damn well that wasn't my fault!" Emil screeched back. "You were the one who thought it would be interesting to Vine yourself limboing under a flaming stick!"

"You were the one who lit it!"

"You asked me to!"

"You…I couldn't have lit it by myself!"

"Yes you could've." Lukas cut in.

"Well guess what? Lighting my magnificent hair on fire has absolutely nothing to do with woodshop or my unmeltable snowman!" Mathias suddenly smirked down at Lukas. "And I bet I could make it perfect without your help!"

All this time, I had stayed silent, not really knowing what to do. Berwald, on the other hand, looked like a man on mission, for he had already started sanding a few pieces of lumber, only pausing a few times to look up at the argument taking place.

"Stop kidding yourself Mat," Lukas said as he ran his hand through his hair. As he rearranged his hair, I noticed that he had a seemingly gravity-defying curl on the side of his head. "I've known you most of your life, and that isn't even a possibility."

"You're wrong!"

Suddenly, a bizarre glint appeared in Lukas' eye. I would've said that it was the exact same kind of glint Toris had shown when he signed me up for woodshop, but Lukas made the look seem almost sinister.

"Alright Mathias Køhler. I challenge you to a bet."

Here we go again.

"If you can create your unmeltable snowman perfectly, without anyone's help, at the end of the semester, you'll owe me a favor."

"And when I do make it perfectly?"

"If, by some magical power from another realm you are able to create it perfectly, I will owe you a single favor."

Clearly determined, Mathias stuck out his hand, which was promptly shaken by Lukas. "I accept your bet, Lukas Bondevik."

The class ended around fifteen minutes later, and once the bell rang, Emil was out of the door in a millisecond. Placing my untouched pieces of wood back on its pile, I began packing up my disregarded homework. Lukas and Mathias left soon after, which left me and Berwald alone in the same classroom, just like the day before. After packing up my chemistry book, I glanced towards him.

It looked as if he was just putting his last tool away, when he passed by Mathias' working table, which was still full of tools, various pieces of timber, and many wood shavings. Without a second thought, he began clearing his table as well.

Realizing that I was just staring at Berwald, I dropped my backpack and walked towards him. "Here, let me help!" I exclaimed. With somewhat of a confused look in his eye, he nodded and picked up the untouched wood, while I swept the unnecessary pieces into the trash. Within a minute, the table seemed as clean as it had been when we had walked in that afternoon.

"Well, that's done!" I said, not really knowing what else to say. He grunted and bent down to pick up his backpack, which I mirrored. "So, do you have any other classes after this?" I asked.

He shook his head. "N'pe. N'rmally go 'n d' h'mework n'w."

I nodded knowingly. "I do the same thing." We left the classroom without another word.

The walk back to our dorms was pretty silent; while I knew a little more about Berwald than the previous day, I wasn't completely comfortable around him. We soon reached our dorms, and with a quiet, "See you tomorrow," we parted ways.

After closing my door behind me, I placed my backpack on the kitchen table and immediately began starting on my homework.

___________

I quickly finished chemistry, astronomy, and math when I realized that Toris hadn't come out to greet me. I checked the time, which read 5:47, signifying that I had been working for almost two hours. Puzzled, I called out. "Toris?"

No answer.

I pulled out my phone to call him. However, I had one unread message. It read,

Delivered: 5:28

From: Toris Laurinaitis

Sorry for the late notice, but I won't be back for a couple of hours.

There was no explanation why, which confused me. Though it was odd, I didn't want to pry; after all Toris' business was Toris' business. After typing back an, "Okay!" I closed my books and put my backpack in my dorm room, and then deciding it was around time to eat, I wandered back the fridge, and pulled it to find…

absolutely nothing.

Well, that's not entirely true. Occupying the fridge was a half-gallon of milk, a bag of assorted vegetables, and ranch dressing. I found the same problem when I opened the freezer, which only contained three containers of vanilla ice cream from 'Big Gay Ice Cream Shop' that Toris so dearly loved. I sighed and closed it, making a mental note to buy groceries when I had the chance, and deciding not to have carrots and broccoli for dinner, tugged on my coat and my shoes. Placing my wallet in my coat pocket, I opened the door to find the hall completely empty. Today must've been a normal study night, and not one of Mathias' party event nights.

Sighing in relief, I shut the door and began walking down the corridor, when I suddenly stopped in the hall. It was at this moment that I realized that I would be eating alone for the night, which I wasn't too thrilled about. While I was nineteen, this was only my fourth day on campus, and while I knew that I would have to do things alone in college, I would've liked to avoid my solitary, at least at the beginning of the semester.

This left me with a problem. The only people I knew in a way were Toris, Eduard, Raivis, Feliks, and those from the woodshop class. Toris, of course, was out of the equation because he hadn't returned, and so were Raivis and Eduard, for I didn't know what dorm they were residing in. While I knew where Feliks was (his bedazzled door gave him away) I wasn't going to ask him, or Emil, who would probably be eating licorice for dinner. I had no idea where Mathias or Lukas' dorms were, so the only person that was left was none other than Berwald.

I didn't head to his room right away, however. Of course I was getting hungrier and hungrier by the second, but I had told him that I would probably be busy the entire night, and I didn't want to interrupt him out of the blue! I considered randomly knocking on a door and asking whoever was there out to dinner, but I would probably make a fool out of myself.

I finally made up my mind, and began walking to Berwald's dorm, number 142. As I neared his door, I thought I heard a jaunty tune that was vaguely familiar coming from inside. I timidly raised my hand, and before I could change my mind, knocked thrice on the oak door.

The music suddenly stopped, and a second later, Berwald appeared in the doorway. He still looked exactly the same about two hours earlier, but you could physically see that he was mentally tired, probably signifying that he had been telling the truth about doing homework for the rest of the day.

"Hi Berwald!" I exclaimed. "I was going to have dinner, but I had nothing to eat and so I decided to go down to the cafeteria to eat, but then I realized that nobody was coming with me, cause Toris is out doing who-knows-what, and I really didn't want to go alone and—" realizing that I was rambling, I paused for a moment. "…I was wondering if you wanted to grab some dinner with me downstairs?" I finished.

All this time, Berwald had remained silent. His facial expression hadn't changed, except for a minute head tilt that I almost missed. After I finished, he shrugged his shoulders, then murmured, "'kay."

As I waited a moment for him to grab some cash, I thought about asking him what he had been listening to, but I remained silent. Soon, we were on our way down. I made some small talk on the way down the stairs. "Is there a certain restaurant you want to eat from? There's this really good Italian place you could try!"

I abruptly stopped after swinging the door open, for the cafeteria was packed with students. On my way to the Italian shop, titled Pasta and Pesto, I witnessed a male student with shoulder-length blonde hair standing on a table, seemingly reenacting a scene from Romeo and Juliet. A girl sitting at the same table with glasses and a long side braid hid her face in her hands, undoubtedly embarrassed by the dramatic thespian above her.

Dodging the people, we finally made it over to the quaint Italian restaurant. "I had the fettuccine alfredo yesterday, and it was to die for!" I whispered to Berwald. He nodded and continued looking at the menu.

Deciding what I wanted, I rang the bell on top of the counter. "Hello!" I exclaimed. As soon as the words left my mouth, the same student who had served me and Toris yesterday, popped up.

"Ciao ciao! Welcome to Pasta and Pesto!" Opening his eyes, he looked at me and smiled widely. "Ciao Tino!" He suddenly glanced at Berwald and the smile disappeared from his face. "W-who is your friend?!" he asked, slinking behind the counter.

"Feliciano, this is my friend Berwald," I replied, motioning up to the tall student standing behind me. He grunted in acknowledgement.

We ended up both getting the fettuccine alfredo, and sat down at the nearest table. "How is it?" I asked him excitedly, after he took the first bite.

He nodded. "G''d." He took another bite and looked at me, with just a hint of a smile on his face. "R'ally g''d."

I smiled hugely, and we continued to eat. However, the peace didn't last long, for a cry of, "EAT THIS! I MEAN LITERALLY, EAT THIS!" echoed throughout the room, and a massive food fight broke out, which resulted in people actually standing up on tables and hurling meatballs, sandwiches, ice cream, and plenty of other things at each other.

With a quick look to Berwald, I snatched up my bowl of sustenance and ran out the front door, with Berwald following me. Once the door shut behind us, the shouting and pleads of help died down. Berwald came up beside me, and one glance at him had me laughing, for apparently, he hadn't escaped without a battle wound, for a bright pink splat of something decorated the side of his face.

"Oh Berwald, I'm so sorry!" I managed to get out through my laughing. "It's just – you have something on your face!"

He pointed to the top of my head. "S' d' y'u." With a bewildered expression, my hand found its way to my hair.

"Spagetti!" I quickly ran my hands through my hair and ridded my hair of the cold pasta as Berwald wiped off the pink mess off his face.

"'ce cre'm," he mumbled. "Str'wberry."

We ended up sitting outside the building on a park bench and talked for a while. "So, how do you like woodshop?" I asked him.

He shrugged. "'ts fine. Y'u?"

I debated on whether or not telling the truth about me being in the class. "I mean, its fine. I actually wasn't going to be in the class at all; my friend signed me up for it on Sunday."

He nodded. "'re ya enj'yin' it?"

I didn't answer for a minute. "Well…I've never been that good at woodshop. I'm really grateful that there isn't a professor to grade me on it, because I'm absolutely terrible at it." I laughed lamely.

He turned to face me. "S' wh' 're ya still 'nrolled?"

"Because I signed him up for a class, and we made a bet that whoever dropped out first would buy the other lunch for a week," I admitted.

He faced forward again, nonchalantly stirring his probably now-cold pasta. "I c'uld h'lp ya if ya w'nt."

I sat up quickly. "Really? You would do that? Thank you so much!"

He nodded in response. "Mhm."

The clock stuck 8:00 PM and we both decided to head on back upstairs to our dorm rooms. Once arriving, he pulled out his key and looked at me. "Th'nks 'gain f'r 'nvitin' me."

I smiled. "You're welcome! See you tomorrow, Berwald!"

"See ya."

Once entering my dorm, I saw Toris, sitting at the kitchen table and eating. He looked up. "Oh, hello Tino! What is that in your hair?"

I laughed. "A food fight broke out in the cafeteria, and unfortunately didn't retreat unscathed." I took a closer look at him, and asked, "What happened to your shirt? There's an enormous rip in it!"

Toris looked down. "Oh this? While I was in Forever 21, Feliks somehow ripped my shirt when hold up different tops for me to try on." He ran his fingers over the cut. "I don't even know how it happened."  
"You mean you don't know how an enormous hole just appeared on your shirt?"

"I don't know! It was a sparkly…shiny…sequiny shirt, maybe there was a loose thread and it pulled or something…Anyway Feliks freaked out, and felt so bad that he took me out to dinner."

"A nice dinner, by the looks of it. You even brought leftovers!" I replied. "Speaking of leftovers, we really need to do some grocery shopping. We have nothing but milk, vegetables and ice cream."

He nodded. "We should do that tomorrow. I would do it right now, but I'm completely exhausted."

"Me too." I placed my key on the counter. "Well, I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow, Toris."  
"Goodnight, Tino!"

After taking a shower and cleaning my hair, I went to bed while pondering the following question: "What music was Berwald listening to?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! A longer chapter!
> 
> I think I'll make the chapters in this story a bit longer; the updates will be less often but there will be more to read!
> 
> So, what do YOU think Berwald was listening to? Did you recognize any other characters from Hetalia in the cafeteria?!
> 
> Once again, thank you all so, so, so much for taking the time out of your day to read my story! Hopefully you all are enjoying it as much as I am!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my first story on Archive of our Own! This story was first on Fanfiction, and then Wattpad, and now here. I am basically at the halfway point on this story on both websites at the moment, and I will be uploading the next couple chapters here over the next couple days.
> 
> Tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Continued in the next chapter..


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